Conventionally, there are techniques related to an air conditioning control apparatus which circulates air in a room such as a datacenter or a machine room in order to cool IT equipments 303A to P such as a computer in the room.
However, in the above air conditioning control apparatus, efficiency of the IT equipments 303A to P in terms of energy consumption has not been considered. Therefore, techniques aiming to improve energy efficiency of an air conditioning control apparatus have been proposed.
For example, a technique has been proposed in which energy efficiency is improved by selecting a sensor considered to be important for determining a target temperature from among a plurality of control temperature sensors (as temperature detectors) installed in a room, setting the target temperature, and controlling an air conditioning adjustment function section such as a compressor and a blower. Also, a technique is proposed in which energy efficiency is improved by comparing an air map prepared in advance with an actually measured air map, and optimally controlling cool air distribution.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-118837 and Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2006-504919 are examples of related art.
However, in the above conventional techniques, there is no technique in which air conditioning is controlled in consideration of both energy efficiency of the air conditioning system and that of the IT equipment, although there is a technique in which efficiency of an air conditioning control apparatus alone is considered to control air conditioning for cooling IT equipment.
Generally, energy efficiency of an air conditioning control apparatus improves as a setting temperature of the air conditioning increases. On the other hand, energy efficiency of IT equipment improves as the setting temperature of the air conditioning decreases. Therefore, in the conventional techniques which focus only on energy efficiency of the air conditioning system, it cannot be said that energy efficiency of the IT equipment is optimized. As described above, at present, it is not possible to control air conditioning while considering energy efficiency of both the air conditioning system and the IT equipment, in other words, while considering energy efficiency of the entire datacenter.